ABSTRACT
The Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans, particularly the Classic Maya, were among the ancient world's great astronomers. The world-view of ancient Mesoamerica can best be characterized as an integrated conception of man, space, time, and deity in a stratified, hierarchical cosmos. Units of time, space, and the numbers themselves were personified or deified in a system seemingly in search of one grand, unifying number. On the horizontal plane, Mesoamerican space was divided into four quarters with four prime world-directions. There are seven prime directions in the three-dimensional Mesoamerican conception--the four cardinal directions plus center, zenith and nadir. A typical Classic Maya monumental text begins first with an elaborate calendrical statement. This may take up a whole side of a stela or carved stone monument. Mesoamerican astronomy was numerical or calendrical astronomy, not the more geometrical, positional astronomy that forms the basis of the Western tradition.
